Publication Order of Elemental Masters Anthologies

The Elemental Masters series is a series of fantasy novels written by the American novelist, Mercedes Lackey. The series is in a magical world of an alternate earth and deals with the life of the Elemental Masters, who are people with special magical powers. The magic allows them to have control of water, air, fire and earth. Each of the elemental masters also has the power to control the elementals. All the novels of the series are based on fairy tales featuring the fantasy relationship between the main characters of the novels of the series. The series consists of a total of 10 books published between the years 1995 and 2014. The initial books of the series, whereas the remaining novels of the series were published by the DAW Books. The DAW Books publishing house also gave the names and numbering to the novels of the series. Although The Fire Rose is the first novel written by the author Mercedes Lackey, it is not technically considered a part of the series. A couple of anthologies have also been published in the series in addition to the main books of the series. The author has used the setting of an alternate earth during the times of the early 1900s to depict the magical plots of the series. The only difference between the real and alternate world is that magic exists in the alternate world and is dwelled by the Elemental Masters, who have the power of controlling the four classical elements, fire, air, earth and water. Most of the fairy tales of the series take place in England, whereas a few of them take place in other places like the San Francisco in North America.

The historical and magical world of the Elemental Masters follows the real life time zone and also features the historic calamities such as the San Francisco earthquakes and the Great Chicago Fire. The world in the series consists of two main types of magic, the first one is the Elemental magic and the second one is the ESP which is explored in one of the novels of the series. The author has mentioned different types and levels of magical abilities among the elementals of the series. The Elemental magic is seen as the most common type of magic in the series. All the novels of the series feature at least a couple of elemental masters serving as the main characters, with one of them being the antagonist. The elemental magic of the masters allows them to see and have control over the spirits, having affinity towards particular elementals. The magic world of the series features different regions with different Elementals. They are classified on the basis of their affinity towards air, fire, water and earth, and by the level of their mastery over their magic. Apart from Elemental Magicians and the Elemental Masters, a different type of magic called Spirit is also mentioned in the series. The Spirits do not have any masters. If there had been any such masters, they would have had control over the angels of heaven. The author has described several elemental mages in the series, which can be controlled only by the skillful masters. One of them is the Power of Ice, which can be controlled by the master of fire and is seen as a partial exception of the common abilities of any Elemental mage. The power of ice is described as a destructive power as the masters can twist the nature of heat and cold of the world around them. Another elemental mage named Necromancy is described as the power of death.

The people of the magical world of the series are described with different levels of physical abilities. The Talented are the ones who have a high degree of physic abilities. The talented differ in their abilities and some of them have the ability of gaining ‘familiar’ while the others have Avatars, who have the duty of being the champions of light. The other types of people in the magical world of the series include the Sensitives. These people do not have direct magical powers, but are able to feel and sense the magic of the Elemental Wizards to a certain extent. Some of the Sensitives are also capable of communicating with the elemental spirits, while some others are able to cast magic based on the emotions. The Sensitives form the major part of the household of an Elemental Wizard and can use their limited powers for influencing the people of the world. Other than the wizards, physics ad the elementals, the series also features several other forms of dwellers in the magical world such as the Hindus of India, Fey of England and the avatars of the Gods and Goddesses of the Hindus. The fairly tales of the novels of the series show the female protagonists to be stronger than their fairy tale characters. The initial novels of the series show the story of main female characters facing the malevolence of powerful and old women, before being saved by their Princes. The protagonists of the novels of the series do not totally wait for getting saved by their male characters and rather keep making attempts to fight for their own freedom.

The first novel of the series was published in the year 1995 by the Baen publishing house. It was titled ‘The Fire Rose’ and features the life of the main character named Rosalind Hawkins, who is medieval scholar. She hails from a fine family from Chicago. Rosalind’s father was a professor who had gambled all the family money and died with shock. This had left Rosalind with no future and fortune. The lack of money forces her to leave her education in between and move to the West to start working as a governess for a rich man in San Francisco, named James Cameron. James, who is the new employer of Rosalind faces a problem in his life. Being a Master of the Element of Fire, he had attempted to transform into an old French werewolf, but got stuck in the middle of the transformation, as a half man and half wolf. Over the passage of time, James has been constantly loosing his humanity and the ability to get a cure for his miserable condition. The second novel of the series was titled ‘The Serpent’s Shadow’. It was published in the year 2001 by the DAW Books publishing house. The novel is set in London during the time of the year 1909 and is based on the fairy tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The main character of the novel is described as Maya, who has moved from her English homeland in India to London after the death of her parents. She begins to work as a physician and uses her little bit of magic for defending herself from the enemies. The enemies have followed her to London in order to enslave her and use her magic for their own benefits. Maya gets attracted towards Peter Scott, who is a Water Master and has been sent to track her by the English magicians. Seeing her in trouble, Peter decides to teach her how to use her Western magic in order to save herself from her enemies. The enemies of Maya are described as the devotees of the goddess Kali-Durga. The readers enjoyed reading the beautiful descriptions of the Indian culture and the magical world of the series.

Jack Reacher is back! Personally I thought this was the 2nd best Reacher book yet. The latest book in the Jack Reacher series, Past Tense, came out November 5th. Family secrets come back to haunt Reacher when he decides to visit the town his father was born in. Why? Because when he visits there he finds out no-one with the last name of Reacher has ever lived there. It leaves him wondering - did his father ever live there? More Details.

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Featured Series

One of my favourite series is the Brilliance Saga by Marcus Sakey and it is our featured series of the month. It's just an incredible light sci-fi series that fans of "Dark Matter" would also enjoy. It's free on Kindle Unlimited too! More Details.

Featured Author

Our author of the month is Canadian author Opal Carew who writes erotic romance novels. Opal has written over 100 novels with multiple book series such as the Dirty Talk series and the Abducted series. If you’re a fan of erotic romance, be sure to check out Opal Carew.

Did You Know…

The Kellermans (Faye and her husband, novelist Jonathan) are the only married couple ever to appear on the New York Times bestseller list simultaneously (for two different books). Their oldest child, Jesse Kellerman, is a bestselling novelist and award-winning playwright. Their youngest, Aliza Kellerman, co-wrote Prism (2009), a young adult novel, with her mother.